Advertisements paying tribute to former PM Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary were missing in Thursday's newspapers. In a sharp departure from the past, the Modi government did not issue any advertisements on the occasion of `anti-terrorism day' even as it spent almost Rs .1,000 crore this fiscal on its own publicity .
The only ads that appeared were from Congress party . Sources said this was in keeping with the government's decision not to issue advertisements on death anniversaries of political leaders. Others attributed it to confusion caused by the recent Supreme Court order directing the government not to publish any pictures except those of the PM, the President, the CJI and departed leaders like Mahatma Gandhi.
The day , which is observed as anti-terrorism day , saw PM Narendra Modi paying tributes to Rajiv Gandhi while Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley took the anti-terror pledge.
The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DA VP) under the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry is tasked with ensuring publicity in print and electronic media for the government. Between 2008 and 2013, the DAVP issued several advertisements on May 21 commemorating the Congress leader's death, spending over Rs 10 crore.
The agency spent Rs 53 lakh in 2008-2009 followed by Rs 1.04 crore in 2009-2010.This doubled to Rs 3.05 crore in 2010-2011 and increased to Rs 3.27 crore the next year.The government spent about Rs 2.38 crore in 2012-2013.
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